Table 3
Types of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies studied for various conditions (full/partial economic evaluations)
| Acupuncture | Homeopathy | Manual therapy | Spa therapy | Mind-body therapy | Hypnosis | Botanical medicine | Nutritional supplements | Diet | Biofeedback | Hyperbaric oxygen therapy | Miscellaneous* | TOTALS† | |
| Populations with mixed conditions‡ | 3/2 | 2/1 | 0/1 | 0/1 | 10 | ||||||||
| Back, neck, and/or leg pain | 1/0 | 5/0 | 1/0 | 1/0 | 8 | ||||||||
| Surgery | 2/1 | 2/0 | 5 | ||||||||||
| Cardiac patients | 2/0 | 1/0 | 1/0 | 4 | |||||||||
| Rheumatic disorders | 0/1 | 1/0 | 1/0 | 3 | |||||||||
| Epilepsy | 0/3 | 3 | |||||||||||
| General costs | 0/1 | 0/2 | 3 | ||||||||||
| Allergy | 0/1 | 1/0 | 2 | ||||||||||
| Cancer chemotherapy | 2/0 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Diabetic ulcers | 2/0 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Dyspepsia | 1/0 | 1/0 | 2 | ||||||||||
| EENT in children | 1/1 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Headache/migraine | 2/0 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Midwifery/obstetrics | 1/0 | 0/1 | 2 | ||||||||||
| Miscellaneous§ | 1/0 | 2/0 | 1/0 | 1/0 | 1/2 | 2/0 | 10 | ||||||
| TOTALS† | 5 | 11 | 7 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 60 |
EENT = Eye, ear, nose, and throat conditions
* Miscellaneous CAM therapies include: multivitamins, shoe orthoses, electrodermal screening, and aromatherapy.
† Some studies compared more than one CAM therapy. Therefore, totals exceed the number of studies found.
‡ Populations with mixed conditions include: patients with chronic disease, patients at one general practice (4 studies), long-term care workers, persons in Quebec health system, inner city children, and older adults (2 studies).
§Miscellaneous conditions include: anxiety, Parkinson's, psoriasis, uterine fibroids, urinary tract infection, macular degeneration, severe burn, AIDS, obesity, and hypertension.